About

Oleg Gnedin investigates the formation and evolution of galaxies and star clusters. He uses numerical simulations with adaptive mesh refinement to resolve galactic structure on fine scales, while simultaneously modeling a large region of the universe. This powerful tool has allowed him to describe how galaxies, and massive star clusters within them, have grown and evolved under the influence of gravity, radiation of cosmic gas, and other critical physical processes. The results of these numerical simulations help illuminate the origin of the observed galactic structure.

Notable Results

Gnedin developed the first widely accepted solution to the problem of “missing satellites” around large galaxies. While recent models of galaxy formation have made accurate predictions on large scales, they predicted far more small galaxies than are actually observed. By accurately modeling the energy transfer within cosmic gas, Gnedin was able to show that many gas-rich areas were absorbing too much radiation to collapse and form these smaller galaxies.